The world's largest construction project

Petrochemical infrastructure remains an important source of contracts.
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Jubail has been growing since 1975 and shows no sign of stopping as the first contracts for Jubail Two are awarded

Much like Yanbu, its congruent city on Saudi Arabia’s west coast, in 1975 Jubail was designated as an industrial city, and is now the largest industrial complex of its kind in the world.

Having been described as far back as 1983 as ‘the largest construction and engineering project ever attempted’, the city shows no sign of slowing down. The city is now expanding to create a Jubail Two, an 84km expansion project located some 8km to the west of the established Jubail One.

Recent months have seen a flurry of big value contracts awarded, with little sign of a slowdown. In July, Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu awarded five construction contracts for Jubail Industrial City worth a total of US $257.5 million (SR964.3 million).

The largest contract, worth $93.5 million, was awarded to Azmeel Contracting and Construction Corporation in association with Saudi Tumpane Company for phase one of Jubail’s Community site development. The contract will run for three and a half years.

Meanwhile, Saudi Aramco handed out 13 EPC contracts, worth a total of $9.6 billion, to undertake work on its Jubail Export Refinery mega project.

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Manufacturing and infrastructure remain high on the agenda in the city. In anticipation of increased growth, Suez Energy International and Acwa Power Projects are constructing a $3.4 billion independent water and power plant for the Power and Water Utility Company for Jubail and Yanbu.

The power plant will comprise of four blocks and will be based on combined cycle generation gas turbines.

Meanwhile, the desalination plant will comprise of 27 units that will use multiple effect distillation technology (MED). Jubail IWPP will produce 2,745MW of power and 800,000m3 per day of desalinated water to Jubail Industrial City and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Construction began in 2007 and is expected to finish in Q1 2010.

However, the city isn’t ‘all business’. September saw Rezayat pick up the construction contract for the $7 million social and cultural centre. The 2,261m2 building is due in Q1 2011.

Jubail itself has proved to be a valuable training ground for the economic city developments taking place across Saudi Arabia.

“Jubail and Yanbu are very successful stories. When they were started in the 1980s everybody was saying ‘these people are crazy, don’t bother doing it’ – everybody was gambling about its failure and now everybody is talking about its success. It proved to be the right decision at the right time,” says Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Town Planning Dr Abdulrahman Al Shaikh.